PHILADELPHIA (CN) - The convictions against the so-called Fort Dix Five, a group of New Jersey residents snared in a plot to attack the military base, should be tossed on the basis of unconstitutional wiretaps and prejudicial evidence, defense attorneys argued in a hearing of the 3rd Circuit.
A jury convicted the men in December 2008 after a three-week trial in which prosecutors used a trove of surveillance to prove that the defendants were plotting a violent jihadist attack against soldiers stationed at Fort Dix in New Jersey.
Jordanian-born Mohamad Shnewer and three Albanian brothers - Dritan, Eljvir and Shain Duka - received life sentences. A fifth man, Turkish-born Serdar Tatar, was sentenced to nearly 33 years in prison.
The men were arrested in May 2007 while trying to acquire machine guns and assault rifles in an FBI sting operation. Federal investigators had been watching the group since January 2006, when the FBI obtained a videotape of the five men that had been brought to a Circuit City store for copying.
The video depicted men shooting guns in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains, and shouting "Allah Akbar!" and "jihad in the States."
Outside District Court on Monday, a throng of women in robes and multicolored veils argued their case writ large on handmade signs decrying "Entrapment of Muslims" and "Selective Ethnic Prosecution."
Czurada Duka, 52, mother of the three Duka brothers, told Courthouse News she was disgusted by the actions of an informant in the case.
"He worked for money, but he should be in the place of my sons," she said outside the courthouse.
At least two of her sons are serving life sentences at the ultra-secure ADX Florence facility in Florence, Co.
"They are very strong kids, but imagine you are staying for 24 hours in a bathroom," she said.
The Duka brothers' sister, Naze, 24, said "most people now are starting to see that these are all set up cases."
She said she was underwhelmed by the Muslim community's response to her brothers' arrest.
Christians "are the ones helping us through the whole thing," Naze Duka said.
"Rather than the Muslims coming out, it's the Americans coming out [to support her brothers]," she added.
Last week, a study from New York University's Center for Human Rights and Global Justice cited the Fort Dix Five as a case study proving that "government-manufactured" terrorism cases are a "myth" that pose "intolerable threats to basic human rights across the country."
Naze Duka said her brothers had simple intentions in trying to buy high-powered weaponry. "Like every man usually is, they were into guns," she said, adding that the video of the Dukas allegedly training for terror in the Poconos was really just a depiction of boys being boys.
"They all used to go for one week to get away from their wives," she said.
The NYU study describes the video as footage of a hunting trip that also captured the men riding horses, skiing and playing paintball.
Czurada Duka, their mother, said the FBI paid a personal visit to her home after someone yelled "Allah Akbar" at a prior hearing. Agents allegedly told her: "If they say again 'Allah Akbar,' we're going to arrest the family."